ALA in Anaheim ... oh my aching shoulder
I got to use a friend's badge to go to ALA today. She said I could get lots of free books and I did!! After I started filling the second bag, I realized I had enough, mostly because the first bag was so heavy my arm, my neck, and my shoulder ached. Time to go home.
This convention had some of the overwhelming coolness of a Worldcon. So much to see, so many vendors of so many neat things. I was dying to "be" a librarian and chat up some of the vendors, but they always ask "what library do you work at" and then when I say "I'm just a flunkie" they want the name of the buyer/head librarian. So awkward! So I started avoiding chats/interactions. I kept having to give the wrong name ( the name on my badge) which felt very weird.
Coolness
Furniture in the shape of books: www.bigcozybooks.com. They actually looked very good!! No prices, so they must be expensive. I should have sat on them to see if they were comfortable. He did not care for them. I spoze if he wanted furniture in the shape of bikes and canoes and skateboards and guns, I might object.
Lots of kid stuff (little kids as well as teen): books, cute furniture, RPGs, Wii's, and even a publisher of “boy books”. They want libarians to lure kids into libraries by buying RPGs and Wiis!! There was even a small section devoted to RPG purveyors. It makes sense if you just want kids to come into the library, but I'd want them to, you know, read.
What was a tiny bit disappointing was the dearth of genre fiction. This is all I noticed:
· Kensington was there with a few romances & chicklit.
· Sisters in Crime was giving out a freebie pb and had only a handful of books on display.
· Galaxy (an L Ron Hubbard imprint) was there giving out free copies of their re-issues of 30's pulps (western/SF/mysteries) with the original covers. I wonder if Scientology nutjobs run Galaxy.
· Tor was there, but not giving out anything free (that I could see - probably all given out yesterday). They had huge posters of Cory Doctorow's latest, various SF titles and all 4 of Scalzi's books lined up.
My best free-book score was Fablehaven by Brandon Mull who knows Brandon Sanderson. ( I asked if he did cuz I noticed he was from SLC and I figured fantasay writer types must hang together.)
Found out Overdrive also has music, movies, and TV shows available. They showed how utilization of libraries increased as soon as the library added music and movies to their downloadble stuff. I'm sure that's true, but I'm also sure the data they presented was cherrypicked.
Bronze sculptures by Randolph Rose. Many cute ones of kids reading/holding books, similar to the one in front of the Mission Viejo library. The cuteness factor was a tad overdone, but I'm sure they sell. The bronze I drooled over was a wonderfully detailed large frog. It must have been a good 30" high, with a little frog on its back and a small one underneath. Some mushrooms were in the detritus at it's feet. I want that frog! It's "on sale" (30% off, I think) for a mere $4200 (gulp, down from $6000+) + "only $200" for shipping. What I was hoping to find was large turtles like a neighbor has. But the more I think about the frog, the more I want both. I am totally completely nuts because I am actually thinking about it. He was not enthusiastic, especially since our investments have gone down the toilet and we're not bringing in any more money, except for my part-time work.
Stupidity
First of all, the assholes made me park on the second story, where the truck could bake nicely in the sweltering sun. Then when I was done, I couldn't find my way back to the correct parking lot. Signage to parking really sucked. Then after wandering around, getting more desperate as the books got heavier and heavier, I finally found the truck, got in and I couldn't find my way down. There is exactly one way to get out and down and there are no signs anywhere telling you where it is. They apparently don't make enough money to post a couple of signs with arrows. God, I hate convention centers and Anaheim in particular. Good thing I got the parking right the first time when I went to Worldcon.
Now I must read the freebies. I made an attempt to only pick up books I thought I would enjoy/read. I saw no point in picking up anything else, although admittedly that was my first impulse.
This convention had some of the overwhelming coolness of a Worldcon. So much to see, so many vendors of so many neat things. I was dying to "be" a librarian and chat up some of the vendors, but they always ask "what library do you work at" and then when I say "I'm just a flunkie" they want the name of the buyer/head librarian. So awkward! So I started avoiding chats/interactions. I kept having to give the wrong name ( the name on my badge) which felt very weird.
Coolness
Furniture in the shape of books: www.bigcozybooks.com. They actually looked very good!! No prices, so they must be expensive. I should have sat on them to see if they were comfortable. He did not care for them. I spoze if he wanted furniture in the shape of bikes and canoes and skateboards and guns, I might object.
Lots of kid stuff (little kids as well as teen): books, cute furniture, RPGs, Wii's, and even a publisher of “boy books”. They want libarians to lure kids into libraries by buying RPGs and Wiis!! There was even a small section devoted to RPG purveyors. It makes sense if you just want kids to come into the library, but I'd want them to, you know, read.
What was a tiny bit disappointing was the dearth of genre fiction. This is all I noticed:
· Kensington was there with a few romances & chicklit.
· Sisters in Crime was giving out a freebie pb and had only a handful of books on display.
· Galaxy (an L Ron Hubbard imprint) was there giving out free copies of their re-issues of 30's pulps (western/SF/mysteries) with the original covers. I wonder if Scientology nutjobs run Galaxy.
· Tor was there, but not giving out anything free (that I could see - probably all given out yesterday). They had huge posters of Cory Doctorow's latest, various SF titles and all 4 of Scalzi's books lined up.
My best free-book score was Fablehaven by Brandon Mull who knows Brandon Sanderson. ( I asked if he did cuz I noticed he was from SLC and I figured fantasay writer types must hang together.)
Found out Overdrive also has music, movies, and TV shows available. They showed how utilization of libraries increased as soon as the library added music and movies to their downloadble stuff. I'm sure that's true, but I'm also sure the data they presented was cherrypicked.
Bronze sculptures by Randolph Rose. Many cute ones of kids reading/holding books, similar to the one in front of the Mission Viejo library. The cuteness factor was a tad overdone, but I'm sure they sell. The bronze I drooled over was a wonderfully detailed large frog. It must have been a good 30" high, with a little frog on its back and a small one underneath. Some mushrooms were in the detritus at it's feet. I want that frog! It's "on sale" (30% off, I think) for a mere $4200 (gulp, down from $6000+) + "only $200" for shipping. What I was hoping to find was large turtles like a neighbor has. But the more I think about the frog, the more I want both. I am totally completely nuts because I am actually thinking about it. He was not enthusiastic, especially since our investments have gone down the toilet and we're not bringing in any more money, except for my part-time work.
Stupidity
First of all, the assholes made me park on the second story, where the truck could bake nicely in the sweltering sun. Then when I was done, I couldn't find my way back to the correct parking lot. Signage to parking really sucked. Then after wandering around, getting more desperate as the books got heavier and heavier, I finally found the truck, got in and I couldn't find my way down. There is exactly one way to get out and down and there are no signs anywhere telling you where it is. They apparently don't make enough money to post a couple of signs with arrows. God, I hate convention centers and Anaheim in particular. Good thing I got the parking right the first time when I went to Worldcon.
Now I must read the freebies. I made an attempt to only pick up books I thought I would enjoy/read. I saw no point in picking up anything else, although admittedly that was my first impulse.